know your audience

The same people keep asking the same questions about digital marketing, social media and marketing in general. They keep wondering where the easy button is (there isn’t one). They keep looking for someone to swoop in with an answer (there isn’t one, but many). They keep thinking there’s some magic “thing” they’re missing (there is none).

Good marketing, online or off-, social or traditional, direct or mass, is the same now as it was 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 10 years ago. It will be the same 10, 50 and 100 years from now. The tools and trends change. The audience behavior may change, too. But the key to good marketing does not.

To answer your questions, start over. Go back to your college classes or the first few books you read and re-learn how to market. Stop obsessing with the latest tool, trend, website or hashtag and get back to the core – communicating messages to your audience(s) to persuade.

An argument has emerged between a high school friend and me about what the first rule of writing is. She insists it was Layne Tackett’s freshman English class where we learned the K.I.S.S. rule, or keep-it-simple-stupid, was the first rule of writing. I argue that it was Jeanne Williamson’s sophomore one in which we learned what I think is the No. 1 rule for writing: Know your audience.

Of course, the disagreement could well be rooted in the fact I didn’t pay attention in school until roughly my first semester of grad school, but that is not quite relevant to the discussion.

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About Social Media Explorer

Social Media Explorer is a digital and social marketing strategy house and an information products company. From helping clients build business and measure digital success to offering unique consumer insights through our innovative approach to consumer research to educating audiences at our exclusive events, Social Media Explorer is leading businesses into the social and digital realm.

Anchored by years of experience as digital marketing and social media marketing strategists, partners Jason Falls and Nichole Kelly offer business-oriented social and digital marketing strategy and management, educational events and custom training, industry and custom research products, a learning community and question-answer site and a noted industry conference and event series called Explore.